Mo’ne Davis Makes History As First Little Leaguer To Land National Sports Illustrated Cover

Mo’ne Davis, 13, who plays for Philadelphia’s Taney Dragons youth baseball team, has become the first Little Leaguer to land the national cover of Sports Illustrated, reports SI.com.

As previously reported by NewsOne, Davis, who pitches a 70-mph fastball, led her Little League team to the World Series when she struck out six batters during Mid-Atlantic Finals.

Davis is only the 18th girl to play in the Little League World Series since girls were officially allowed to participate in 1974.

“Last week, this week, maybe next week, she’s owned the sports conversation,” Sports Illustrated manager editor Chris Stone said. “How often do you get to say this about a 13-year-old girl? It’s the easiest type of story to identify as a cover story.”

For good measure, Davis had an RBI single in Philadelphia’s victory over Pearland, Texas, this week, becoming the sixth girl to collect a hit in Little League World Series history.

For all her baseball accolades, Davis says her dream is to play basketball for the University of Connecticut.

“To be honest, I never thought I’d be famous for baseball,” she says. “I want to play basketball, and I could also do both basketball and baseball — but I really want to play basketball.”

She also says that she is learning to deal with the media spotlight.

“People were like, ‘Oh, there are going to be people running up to you taking pictures’ and I thought it was going to be a bunch of little kids. But it’s grown-ups! And that’s, like, creepy,” she said. Read more.